EVEN IN EDUCATION.

Waikato Times, Volume 104, Issue 17447, 6 July 1928, Page 11

EVEN IN EDUCATION.

MASS METHODS IN U.S.A. MEDIOCRITY THE RESULT. A DIFFERENCE IN CANADA. ■ "America deals in the mass in everything," said Professor W. F. Osborne, of Manitoba University, lecturing on “American Penetration” at Wellington. “It means, in the case of the common mass of the people, a wonderful unanimity of Ideas and conduct; and this noisy, self-assertive kind of American we do not like. 1 was sitting in front of a great seminary in Massachusetts when a man came along I had never seen in my life, yet he spoke first, and told me everything about himself and his family, down to his grandmother. He spoke for ten minutes. I did not speak at all, and then he said good-bye and went away, and I do not suppose he thought tie would ever see me again. Now, in the Midland Hotel, I sit opposite people who do not speak to me at all, nor do I speak to them, and yet I feel that if something happened, and I wanted something, they would do it; but I am not at all so sure of the talkative, noisy kind of American I mean. His type is the result of mass-made mentality. The United States has assimilated a large mass of dissimilar people, with the result that it has had to adopt mass methods, and yoy have a machine-made man. Take the universities. There arc fifteen universities in the United States that have 15,000 students each. Columbia University has 20,000. Take ihc 3000 freshmen who come to one of these big universities in a year. They will, not stand classes of more than thirty, and so that means that in teachers of freshmen English alone they require 100 instructors. No nation rises higher than its educational system. If it has distinction nothing can keep that country from greatness. If the educational system is condemned to mediocrity and banality, mediocrity and banality will be the highest points to which that nation can rise. The university I have mentioned is only one of a hundred State universities. Where are they to go to And for each a hundred distinguished instructors for first-year English? and the position as regards following years is more serious? They cannot, and do not, find them. The distinguishing hall-mark of American character is mediocrity. If that continues to be tile type of American, then they can have all the money they like; they may build miles and miles of cars end to end, but they will never strike a really high national level.

Canadians Different. "I have no doubt that some of you have been saying, ‘but how like an American he is himself.’ ” said Professor Osborne. “I am cross with that-, because I do not want to be an American. When I go to England 1 try to cultivate an Oxford accent, yet the stodgy Britons always rub me the wrong way by asking, ‘Arc you an American?’ I can feel it in my bones that I am like an American, but I do not want to be like that. People visiting Canada and America see a difference. What makes it? I think the climate has an influence; it puts more iron into the blood. Then we are not quite so sophisticated as the people of the big American cities; yet we succeed wonderfully well when we go there. We have less of the influx from Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, and I think that stiffens us a bit, too, in comparison with America. Then, though I do not like taking my hat off to the Scotch race, because they have a high enough opinion of themselves already, a great deal of the pivotal activities of Canada are in the hands of Scotch people. Then there is the fact that one-third of our people are French-Canadians, wedded alike to their country, religion, and customs, and determined that they will not let their rights be dissipated by the interposition of American idcais. The Eng-

lish-speaking citizen prefers British stuff to American, and he prefers the British type to the American type. The American type, the mass production type of man, we are not fond of. I know it is hackneyed, but the British type of man signifies a freedom of individual thought and action, a crispness of expression that Is sadly lacking from the mass production type of American citizen.” x '